HAIL LORD GANESHA (and hopefully our brains)

The beloved Lord Ganesha is here. This is perhaps one idol which has maximum recall in both India and Western world. Lord Ganesh - a symbol of Well being, Prosperity, auspicious, and above all considered the lord of WISDOM. You know what i actually dont believe the last part.
GANESHA CANNOT SIGNIFY WISDOM - heres why
Every year people primarily across Maharashtra /KAranataka but also across the country bring in Idols of Lord Ganesha. These idols have got fancier, bigger and more intricate by the day. Every year Immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh is carried out on the Ananta Chaturdasi day in the month of Bhadrapada (Chandramana  Calendar), i.e. either in August or September, after ten days of worship.  Thousands of these idols are immersed in water bodies leading to END of 2 things -- GAnesh Festival and the environment. The reason being the Plaster of paris and chemicals used in these idols. Sample taken from the key lakes and water bodies of key chemicals before and after the Ganesh immersion last year show that harmful chemicals like Magnesium, Arsenic and Silicon almost double leading to poisoning and death of fishes and disrupting the entire ecosystem.
Yes there have been several attempts at promoting "Traditional Mud idols"/ Alum idols, natural dyes etc but thats as successful as trying to ask people to buy a car with airbags because its more safe. The bottom line remains that majority of people go for "Cheap" = POP + Chemicals.
In addition it is common knowledge that during immersion there are "fights" between various groups for "privelage" of first immersion = privilege of being the first to pollute.
So now a GOD whose worship leads to only destruction and demolition of nature cannot surely signify WISDOM or we would have had some wisdom to stop revelry in the name of god.
Dont get me wrong, i am not against tradition and celebration and here are some solutions to this. One of my friends actually uses the same idol which is used in the "Temple at Home "(which everyone has) and symbolically immerses it in a bucket and then reinstates it in the temple. Alternatives such as using paper images can be explored which are easier to dispose. however this needs a movement and a law whichc annot be done politically -- this would soon become a Hindu Muslim issue if some politician raised it.... and an employemnt issue too saying idol making supports a cottage industry (actaully Cocaine provides more employment too, wonder why its banned)
The Environmentalists of the world? Green Peace? WHO ? Anyone any ideas to prevent this destruction?
Till then Hail Lord Ganesha, Hail Pollution!!

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Mumbai's new Tourist Hotspot - The MAHIM Wall

Refreshing, unique , Unexpected, Witty , creative, fun, must see, Colorful, clean -- i think there is hardly anything in Mumbai, let alone the tourist spots which fit can fit into all of the above adjectives. But those are some adjectives which exactly fit the "About to be Tourist Hotspot of Mumbai - The MAHIM GRAFFITI WALL"

In a move to beautify the
city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation invited citizens to paint
graffiti on walls owned by the civic corporation, and on INdependence
Day, people responded with enthusiasm.

BMC had approached the
Wall Project, a Mumbai-based group specialising in graffiti painting,
to decorate the 3-km wall from Mahim to Dadar railway station along the
Tulsi Pipe road with grafitti. Around 200 artists and also novices in
handling the brush came forward to showcase their talents on the huge
canvas on August 15. The artists are expected to complete the stretch
by August 16.

The result is amazing -- a colorful, witty (ok please refer to begin of page for the adjectives). Here are some images -











However images cant capture this nor can words and this is something
must see and my personal favorite on the wall was this message -
" I have and open mind doesnt mean u can fill it with Rubbish"

My twobits on the initiative -

1. Am I in Mumbai, was this BMC, Ooh My god!!!
2. Next stage is to give entire road stretches to Companies and ask them to maintain/ beutify them in return for "Free" Advt. space on that road for 5-10 years -- imagine a "Tide' road which is Clean and spotless maintained by the company -- win -win for advertisers and BMC
   

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The Brand DNA

Sophie posted an interesting article on facebook " The Luxury Brand Effect: Should BMW sell Ketchup" It hypothesises that recession-wracked shoppers are eager to embrace luxury brand names over a wide range of product categories, including those with little logical connection to the brand's core item.The authors attribute this phenomenon to the "promise of pleasure" — a brand like, say, Cartier evokes strong, positive emotional responses in consumers, and those good feelings can be easily transferred to stuff like furniture, cheese and even, yes, ketchup.
But this aint a new phenomenon. Successful brands and companies alike know that they always have a "Core". There is an underlying "Success mantra" and just like certain names evoke a perception so do brands. E.g. All Indians would realize that a name like Vijay Sighania would evoke images of grandeur , businessman with abundance and royal charm.
So while BMW Ketchup may not necessarily sell because it doesnt derive any characteristics of Brand Core (none i can think of), some examples of companies who have already leveraged there brands "Core" to cross sell services are -
Tata Group (i am biased here) - The brand always signifies trust and solidity. For over a century this brand was entrenched in commodities business like steel and vehicles. However over the past 2 decades you see them moving into leveraging the "Trust and solidity" image across the diaspora of retail products from retail chains (Westside and Chroma) to Mobile (Tata Teleservices now Docomo) to cheaper hotel chains (Ginger) to Tanishq (jewellery and watches).
Another well known example is Harley - which has leveraged the automobile brand to clothing lines, branded accessories and add-ons

So here are some Luxury brands who could leverage there core and associated "product" areas they could move in to by leveraging there Brand DNA -
Wild ideas but as Einstien once said " Its not as important to have knowledge, but absolutely necessary to have imagination"

1. Jimmy Choo can diversify into Ipod Casings,  Car accessories, because its Brand DNA  = Flaunting anything take "encases"
   
2. Ferrari can launch and internet browser because its all about being "Fast"
3. Rolex/ Patek Philippe - can launch a high end airlines because its all about "On time in Class"
4. Bulgaria - scented washing powders anyone
5. Zegna Diapers -- its finally about dressing a man in style why not start from the first cloth worn
   
6. And finally Victorias Secret Condoms --- luxury in initimate moments :-)

Feel free to add more..

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Swine flu affected people banned from Tourist spots

Today the swine flu really seems to have bugged me. I read this article that Swine flu seems to have created a "Health Rift" in Maharashtra India. The village councils of Shriwardhan and Diveghar have banned tourists from Mumbai and Pune.
Both these are popular tourist weekend getaways for people in Mumbai and Pune and the economy of these villages basically survives on tourism. Thus i am sure it was a discussion which would have met with heated debate and opposition. The reason for the ban was that there are yet no cases of Swine flu in these places and they beleive that since these places do not have big medical facilities "Prevention is better than cure" --- or rather Prevention is the Only option and NO cure.
Now my quirky brain starts thinking if we can take such drastic steps just for Swine flu should Mumbai learn this as an example and "Ban people from other regions in India from settling in Mumbai to prevent the spread of a bigger disease -- Overcrowding???"
I leave u with that thought over the weekend -- and OK no more Swine flu posts ;-)

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The advantages of Swine Flu

According to one study, only 1% of those who believe they have swine
flu actually have swine flu. The remaining 99% are suffering from an
unrelated disease: Mass Panicking Syndrome.

And while there is all round scare and hype about "swine flu" there are some good things which i notice as a result of Swine Flu - Some obvious and some not so obvious ones.

1. The illeterate and downtrodden of the world now have a medical degree. My building Gurkha for example now knows the difference between a Virus and Bacteria to the details of the fact that "Virus doesnt have its own cell mechanism like a bacteria". Thanks to the Media. By the way he also now has learnt a new word "Media Hype"
   
2. There is less crowds in the malls and as a result lesser crowds on the roads. I think the greenhouse activists should be happy as the "Pollution" levels would surely have gone down this last week.
3. Theatres, Multiplexes are closed and people are scared to go to any place where there are "crowds" ruling out eataries etc. Which means "families" are actually sitting together an having meals and "talking". In the era of "Social Networking" while people stay in touch with unknown "web friends" they are rarely in touch with the immediate family/ neighbor. Hopefully the self imposed lock down improves the social interactions -- 70's meaning of "Social" of course
4. Euthnasia and suicide is now legal - all people with a death wish need to do is go and stand in the Queue any of the hospitals where testing of swine flu happens. With over 200-300 "Suspected" swine flu candidates standing in the queue u are bound to contract it even if u dont have one and by the time ur number comes ur death wish might have been answered.
   
5. The "Indian Namaste" way of greeting is gaining ground vs shaking hands. I am sure the real reason behind namaste in Shastra's is to spread diseases
6. You can get off a traffic offence if u sneeze as soon as the police constable approaches you.
7. Its become easy to get a 7 day off from office -- all u need to do is get a warm water bath and sneeze.
8. A few people have noses that look like swine. These are the ones who wear masks to avoid being seen.
   
9. All Tamilnadu residents are proud because most of them beleive that the treatment of Swine Flu was invented/ produced in Chennai (Tamiflu)
10. Natural resources have become more valuable than gizmos - People are more worried about the 10 deaths from swine flu vs the 60,000 which dies from Malaria, 100,000 who dies of leptospirosis, and so the cost of a non-electric device like N-94 face mask/ or even the cotton mask is higher than a complex piece of mosquito repellent.
11. 
    

My sympathies with those who died of swine flu but
“2000 people have Swine Flu and the whole world wants to wear
a surgical mask. 20 billion have AIDS and still noone wants to wear a
condom.”

I am sure in all the doom and gloom u too have some more interesting benefits u see of the Swine flu scare.
PLease do share to make this compilation more interesting and do drop down here for some interesting & conspiracy theory based views on Swine Flu.

Footmarks on the Internet

All of us "twitterians" are aware of the site being brought down and both the tech kind as well as  the non-tech kind know that it was a "cyber attack". Whithout going into the technicalities whats interesting is that these attacks makes one to think that as we move into the internet world every step u take is as dangerous as the Jungles of Amazon.

The cost of renting out 10,000 machines—enough to cripple a site like Twitter—has tumbled to $200 a day from between $2,000 and $5,000. "We have seen the price points dropping fast. And if someone can cripple Twitter how safe are you.

This increasing social media and networking has lead to the creation of a dangerous footprint in the internet world - "Digital residue"
Social networking sites open and close based on trends. It was Orkut one day, facebook and twitter now and who knows what next year. But as people move from one social network to another there is a huge amount of personal data lying on all these social networks -- names , photos, scraps, birthdates, conversations -- posted and never pulled down. This is what i call "Digital residue".
This digital residue is extremely dangerous - imagine the small time social n/w site which is now out of trend and filing for bankruptcy -- the kind of money this digital residue can face if sold to digital hackers in simply unimaginable.
Some more discussions regarding Digital Assasination by Barrett Lyon here is interesting and point to how this could be used to slander any individual.
So all you netizens beware - ensure u delete your footmarks as u hop from one social network to another

hacking, telecom, new world, comunications, bots

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